Adamant about the Republic

In an interview given to Nine Media, Nova Peris speaks up about her confidence that Australia is ready to change. The first Aboriginal woman to be elected to federal parliament in the Senate; Olympic gold medallist in hockey as well as medal winner in international athletics says “we can’t move forward as a nation until we reconcile the past and part of reconciling the past is knowing what you are reconciling.” She doesn’t want the Constitution to be changed to recognise our First Peoples. Instead, she says, “I want this country to become a republic. Press restart. You’re trying to tell us how we should be recognised in your founding document when we’ve never been lost”.  She maintains contact with country and describes her attachment to the land as spiritual. In her first speech to Parliament, she declared herself “a descendant of the Gija people of the East Kimberley and the Yarwuru people of the West Kimberley; also Iwatja from Western Arnhem Land through her father” while her mother was raised on the Tiwi Islands off the coast of the Northern Territory. [“NOVA Peris” by Kerrie O’Brien, Nine media, 16 February 2019]